The Wandering Disciple

Tampa, Florida: Busch Gardens Tampa is a 335 acre theme park where wild rides meets wildlife. The African themed park has four roller coasters featured on Amusement Today’s Top 50 Coaster list; Montu (3), Kumba (7), SheiKra (13) and Gwazi (38). It is also home to a wide variety of Africa wildlife. Opened in 1959, Busch Gardens was started as an admission free park to compliment the hospitality house for the Anheuser-Busch brewery. The park featured the Bird Gardens, a walk through aviary where guests come in contact with exotic birds species. In 1965 the park expanded to include the Serengeti Plain. The plain was a free roaming home to African wildlife including Zebra, Giraffes and more. The plain quickly became the largest free-roaming habitat outside of Africa. A monorail and railway was added to give guests a closer look at the animals. Then in 1974, the Skyride was added, giving riders a bird’s eye view of the Serengeti Plain. Busch Gardens introduced thrill rides to the pa...

Tierra Verde, Florida: At the mouth of the Tampa Bay lies a barrier island known as Mullet Key. Mullet Key has been a prominent site of Tampa Bay history and is the current home of Fort DeSoto Park, a 1,136 acre park built around the site of the historic fort. Like much of Florida, the first inhabitant to the island were Native Americans. The Tocobaga Indians resided on the island from 1000 to 1500. The location at the mouth of the bay was ideal to the Tocobaga lifestyle. The waters provided an abundance of shellfish and fish provided plenty of food for the tribe as well as a means to trade with other tribes and eventually the Spanish conquistadors. The first Spanish explorer to reach the island was Panfilo de Narvaez in April 1528. Narvaez landed in the region and began searching for riches. As the confrontation with the local tribes became more violent, Narvaez and his group of explorers headed further north. The next major explorer to reach the region was possibly the most p...

Boca Grande, Florida: Known for its quaint village, sandy beaches and world class fishing, Boca Grande an island oasis on Florida’s Gulf Coast. Located on Gasparilla Island in Charlotte and Lee counties, it is short drive from the larger cities but years away from the hustle and bustle of urban life. As with much of Florida, the island was originally inhabited by Native Americans. The Charlotte Harbour region was controlled by the Calusa tribes and Gasparilla Island was no different. The Calusa were drawn to the area by the rich fishing of the area. The area’s first settlers arrived in the area in the late 1800’s and they too settled to the island for its fishing. They established fishing villages on the island as they caught the fish and then packaged them for shipment. In 1885 the economy of the island increased with the discovery of phosphate along the nearby Peace River. As the mining began, there was a great need for a port to ship the phosphate. So the island stepped up ...

Cincinnati, Ohio: Comair is a subsidiary airline operated by Delta Airlines as a Delta Connections service. Based in Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, they provide over 400 flights a day to over 70 destinations. Comair started in 1977 as a small airline, operating two Piper Navajo aircraft. They went public in 1981 and became a Delta Connection in 1984. Delta purchased almost a quarter of Comair stock in 1986 before purchasing the entire operation in 1999. Comair operates a fleet of 74 aircraft. They include the Bombardier CRJ-100ER, Bombardier CRJ-200ER, Bombardier CRJ-700ER and the Bombardier CRJ-900ER. Their fleet is anticipated to reduce in the coming months as they retire the aging CRJ-100 ER’s. Comair flies to 70 destinations in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Bahamas. In addition to their main base at Cincinnati-Northern Kentucky International Airport, Comair also operates a hub at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Click on the photo a...

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: We left Delaware in the morning to head back to Pennsylvania. We were going to spend a little more time with family in Lebanon before heading to the airport in Harrisburg. We suffered our only glitch of the trip when we were trying to leave Harrisburg. It began when we tried to make it through security. My mom gave us an anniversary clock for our one year wedding anniversary we celebrated while on the trip on the 26th. To avoid having it broken in our checked baggage, we kept it in our carry on. Well it alarmed the TSA screener and we were taken aside into secondary screening while the examined the clock to make sure it wasn’t a bomb. Then once they cleared the clock and returned it to us, we made it to the gate only to find out the plane was grossly overweight. The Comair representative said that since we were going to encounter heavy weather on the flight into Atlanta, they needed to take on more fuel. They asked four people to voluntarily give up ...

Ocean City, Maryland: Located on the Delmarva peninsula, Ocean City is one of the popular Mid-Atlantic Eastern Shore destinations. The famous boardwalk and attractions combined with the off-shore sport fishing makes this stop popular with residents and tourists alike. The concept of a beach resort began in 1869 when Issac Coffin opened a beach cottage. Soon after other boarding houses followed and the area quickly became popular with businessmen from nearby metropolitan cities. In 1875 the first major hotel opened, the Atlantic Hotel provided 400 guest rooms with billiard and dancing rooms to entertain its visitors. Throughout the years, the community continued to grow to meet the needs of the tourism industry. The 1970’s were the busiest developmental times as more then 10,000 condo units were being created to stay ahead of the boom. The major attraction of the city is the world famous Ocean City Boardwalk. Extending three miles in length along the Atlantic Ocean, the boardwal...

Ocean City, Maryland: We spend the morning spending time with family and waiting for my dad to get off work. Then we headed south to Ocean City, Maryland. We had dinner at Phillips Seafood, featuring an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet. Then we parked the truck and took a walk down the boardwalk, enjoying the sights and sounds of the Atlantic boardwalk. We stopped by the gaming area and tried our luck with some of the games of skill and rode some of the fair rides that are a mainstay of the Ocean City boardwalk. As the sunset in Ocean City, our vacation was coming to an end. For more photos from day eight, visit my Ocean City photo gallery.